Government spending
CBO: Spending Cuts Could Hit U.S. Economy Hard
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From Reuters: The U.S. economy could take a big hit from automatic government spending cuts even if Congress only leaves them in place for a month or two. The cuts were meant to be so painful that they would force Congress to find a more ...read more
"Unacceptable." Boehner Refuses to Raise Taxes
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From ABC News: Raising tax rates is "unacceptable" to House Speaker John Boehner as he prepares to open negotiations on the looming "fiscal cliff" with the president and congressional Democrats, he told "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer today in ...read more
Damn Right Obama Should Blame Bush for the Recession
By Bob Cesca: Yes, I get it. Among the children of Barbara and George H.W. Bush, Jeb Bush is considered the "smart and reasonable" one. But that's sort of like saying, Lotsa' hammers in that tool box, but this hammer doesn't hurt as much when you bash it into my skull. Make ...read more
Romney to Cut PBS Funding While Ryan and GOP Protect Big Oil
By Bob Cesca: It wouldn't be a presidential election year if the Republican nominee didn't threaten to cut funding to several "liberal" institutions that rely upon federal money: Amtrak, PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. ...read more
Mitt Romney Was For the Stimulus Before he was Against it
Mitt Romney has made attacking Obama's stimulus package a central theme of his campaign. A proponent of austerity, Romney now claims that only tax cuts for the rich and reduced government spending can save the economy. However, interviews he did while George Bush was in office ...read more
Ben Cohen's Interview on the Failure of Austerity Measures
By Ben Cohen: Yesterday, I went on Abby Martin's new show on the RT network to talk about the failure of austerity economics in Europe, and why the US must not follow the same route. Check it out below: I discuss Paul Ryan's plan for the economy in the segment, and I urge ...read more
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US Economy Slowing Down
US economic growth slowed to an annualised pace of 2.2% in the first quarter of the year, from 3% in the final three months of last year. The figure was below economists' estimates of 2.5% and is equivalent to quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.5%. The US Commerce Department said ...read more
Krugman: The Debt Deal Will be Catastrophic
Paul Krugman outlines why the debt ceiling deal being proposed in Washington may temporarily save the economy from the abyss, but won't do anything to address the deep structural problems that have seen years of economic stagnation: We currently have a deeply depressed ...read more